Functional MRI provides roadmap for surgery in previously inoperable areas of the brain

"For event planner Jonathan Widener, flying was second nature. In his previous career as a flight attendant, he’d traveled to more than 50 countries, so when he boarded a client’s private plane on Aug. 13, 2012, for the short flight home from St. Louis to Chicago, he expected it to be uneventful.

But as they waited to take off, everything suddenly went black.

Widener, then 38, had suffered a grand mal seizure and gone into cardiac arrest. He was rushed to a local hospital in St. Louis, where doctors spent a week trying to determine the cause.

Given Widener’s prolific travel background, they ran numerous tests for various diseases he could have contracted in other countries. It was only after they’d ruled out other causes that they concluded Widener likely had a brain tumor, and recommended he return home to seek further care. At that point, Widener didn’t know that he indeed had a brain tumor and if so, what type it was, let alone whether it was survivable.

Since then, Widener has undergone two brain surgeries – including at UCLA Health.

...

But for Widener, the toll of his treatments to date, coupled with his ongoing seizures, made him hesitant. Instead, he sought a second opinion and was referred to Leia Nghiemphu, MD, director of the neuro-oncology clinical service at UCLA Health and a professor of clinical neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Dr. Nghiemphu recommended that Widener undergo a second surgery; from there, he was referred to neurosurgeon Linda Liau, MD, PhD, director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Program and professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine."

Read the whole article at UCLA Health.